>> no president worked harder than clinton to try to broker peace in the middle east. and during his operations, he usually have a bible at his elbow. finally, the 44th president, barack obama, robert gates formerly director of the cia and the u.s. defense secretary, and a republican to boot, said this about obama and 2011. president obama is the eighth president i have worked for, and i believe that the relationship between america and israel has never been stronger. despite this remarkable record, when i was working on this book in 2012, only 8% of israelis thought that obama was

pro-israel. after the recent visit in 2013, a poll by israel democracy institute and tel aviv democracy, shows that figure has only increased to 18%. yet, every measure -- pro-israel. i would like to mention the report that accused israel of targeting civilians during its invasion into gaza following constant rocket attacks from gaza on israel. in rebuttal, a former commander of urged forces in afghanistan told you and watch in 2009 quote, during the fighting in gaza, the israeli defense force -- i'm sorry, the quote is now,

i'll put it this way. during the fighting in gaza, the israeli defense forces quote, did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a conflict zone than any other army in the history of warfare. obama's human representative called the report quote unbalanced, one-sided, and basically unacceptable, end quote. goldstone complained that the israeli government did not cooperate with them, admitted that he had not interviewed in the israeli army officers. however, he eventually agreed with president obama that his anti-israel report had been badly flawed. the record shows that other presidents who have consistently supported israel.

economically, militarily, and diplomatically, obama ranks among the top. i think i'm losing my voice. in conclusion, i suggest that the power from mutual self interest that there are three main reasons why american presidents has reported jews and israel. polls show that president all of the news of the american people, and they overwhelmingly support jews in israel against their many mutual enemies. most well-informed non-jewish americans know that the jews have suffered and triumphs throughout their histories, and share with them the same bible, it's same moral values, and the same determination to bible, it's same moral values, and the same determination to defend

democracy. although jews are only about 2% of the american population, they have won nobel prizes in every category. you may remember that president john adams believed the jews had done more to civilized man than any other nation. their nobel prize winners continue to show the jews and medical breakthroughs alone continue to do more for the advancement of humanity than any other peoples. these are some of the many reasons that almost without exception american presidents have supported and will continue to give ironclad support to jews and israel. finally, since 1948, americans presidents have shown that when the chips are down, israel

remains the only country in the middle east they can trust. thank you very much. [applause] >> i welcome your questions. and if you'll raise your hand, a microphone will be brought to you. on the hope there are lots of them. >> while we're waiting for a couple of hands to raise, maybe you could give us more information on jimmy carter sent you kind of -- >> jimmy carter, the very strange thing about jimmy carter, he organized a group called the elders it and, of course, it seems incredible to me that the elders is horrific, phony, russian propaganda that is so anti-jewish answer and israel. and this group that's supposed to sit by and help jews among others in the middle east, has a

horrific name. it seems that he is so, if you're very sympathetic towards him use a the man is the underdog, which, of course, israel was, the jews were for so long. but he seems very much pro-palestinian without really being anti-israel or anti-jewish. i know he put the book, he wrote a book in which he made a mistake. he admitted that was a mistake. but i honestly think from reading a lot about him and what he did come is that he is very much, it's a very difficult position to be in, very much pro-israel and pro-palestinian but with a bias going towards the arabs. i'm sure many of you would disagree with me and you may be right. >> i have a couple questions. during the rolion and civil

war, general robert e. lee's doctor was jewish, and he is the one that went to stonewall jackson when he got shot. also, he became head of the confederate red cross, and he started sterilization there. and the death rate in the confederate army was less than close to zip compared to the union army. that's one thing space what was the last thing you said? >> the death rate in the confederate army is a lot lower than the death rate in union army. they were not using sterilization in the union army at that time. the other thing i mentioned, i would like to mention is, in a lot of thing she mentioned here at the time of the war, winston

churchill was also a zionist, and he did a lot for israel. in fact, he went to a couple of countries and said this will be israel. and some of those are raping teens said they want to speak to him the next day, and this will be palestine. and he said, the next day the three kings of the arabians came to instead they refused to recognize the state of israel and they wanted to attack immediately, and that was after the first world war. and he couldn't believe what he was hearing because they did not say that whenever giving him land. and part of jordan today was the part that was supposed to have gone to palestine and was never given to palestine, and the part of israel is the part the church wanted to give to israel. >> everything you say is absolutely correct. the very interesting thing about winston churchill was, i was a

young newspaper reporter at the beginning of world war ii, and there was a lot of reporting about winston churchill being so pro-jewish, pro-issue. kind of wrote to a jewish member of parliament. he was quite famous in his day, called emanuel schimmel, i just wrote and said, why do you think churchill is so pro-jewish? and he wrote back, because he's intelligent. [laughter] >> in fact he went to lawrence of arabia to palestine after world war i. >> [inaudible] >> he was. he admired wiseman very much. and apparently it might've been even -- know, an english bishop said something, derogatory about wiseman. lawrence of arabia wrote a letter and it's not certain

whether he sent it or not, in which he wrote to the british and said you're not fit to blank weitzman shoes. church was very pro-jewish and pro-israel. he had a slight change of course when a close friend of his was assassinated like two young jewish young men in egypt. >> [inaudible] >> actually when churchill went with lawrence of arabia, was his adviser, they went to a group of the group were shouting kill all the jews, which lawrence knowing arabic quite well knew what they were saying and didn't come he didn't tell churchill what they were saying in case he was too scared. but there is someone over there asking for a microphone. >> i would like to know how you researched the book. did you realize only a historic

documents or were you able to conduct personal interviews with any of his subjects? >> i did a lot of interviews, a lot of research into various presidential libraries, which brings things up from time to time, new material. and i contacted the british foreign office and that sort of thing. one of the secret documents about the british colonel who spoke with -- had been sealed until then. so will his -- reading dozens of biographies about these people and the american history, the president's biographies themselves, and research and every sort of corner i could. for example, you get morgenthaler who quoted fdr saying he wanted to put barbed wire around the country. it was in morgenthaler's diary

which would and wouldn't be accessible normally which is in one of the archives right now. >> i have a question about the st. louis. over the years i've heard many conflicting stories about fdr's role, what he knew, what he did know. i met you at my college professors 20 years apart said only hampered -- harry truman had been in the white house the st. louis would've landed in the united states. i do know that there was some individual rather prominent in the state department who was very anti-semitic and he is the one who influenced, whoever had to be influenced, to keep the st. louis away. to what degree did fdr know or not know what was going on with his back to the st. louis? >> breckenridge long, he was assistant secretary of state. very anti-semitic, and he lied

to congress when the readings about letting more choosing, more passports. what fdr had done, he allowed a lot i think several thousand jews to stay who outstayed a temporary passports, and the passengers on that ship went to european places where they thought they would be safe, and india was the only place they would be. belgium was one of the other ones. fdr only hurt, fdr heard quite early on from a friend of his, a woman who is a medical doctor saying how badly do not see were already treating the juice. but i think it's been, breckenridge long, obviously fdr didn't do enough. no, he didn't do enough. know when the enough obviously. >> i had a family member on the

st. louis. >> right. >> fdr would certainly not a jew lover. and according to this relative who left germany, came to america, was denied freedom here and asylum here, went to britain, that his ph.d, came back to the u.s. when harry truman was president. he was welcomed, and ended up being the chief of the industrial relations department at cornell university. he tells the story in a family book that we have that the jews and new that fdr was not their friend. that the jews who were in america knew that fdr knew about the concentration camps, knew

about the fact that these individuals were fleeing for their lives, and it took the bravery of england to allow this family member to seek asylum. so i think there's a lot of misinformation about fdr in the jewish community spirit what do you think are some of the misinformation? >> wide? the misinformation is that jews in america thought that fdr was a hero because he entered the war. but he was no hero to the jewish people, in my opinion, because of what he didn't do. and he allowed to air the state department to set forth the doctrine of the united states while he was president. >> why do you think then as when he was a dying man he would travel to the suez canal to try to persuade the king of arabia,

saudi arabia, to help the jews since he was so -- >> but he didn't want them in america. they were find elsewhere. go to israel, go to palestine, but not here in america. they were not welcomed in america. >> i'm sure you're right, and a lot of reason for that was, not the reason but what was said, his jewish advisers told him if you let more jews in their we more anti-semitism. so he was getting bad advice, too. the first thing you said about your relative is terrific, and what he achieved. fdr will always be controversial in this respect. and as i said, no one did enough to help them, but look what he did. that refugee board said holocaust jews, 200,000 jews.

>> the real hero in american history is the white eisenhower, because dwight eisenhower commanded that there be films made of auschwitz when it was liberated. and he said he was doing it so that deniers could never really conquered the idea that the holocaust happened. and he was a hero, he should be adhered to the american jewish community. >> when he was in north africa, all the arabs tried to save his jewish because -- avec. his publicity people had to do a lot of work persuading the arabs, convinced the literacy wasn't jewish. how that was started, in fact, the schoolbook had a little article in it saying something that he was vaguely jewish or something. and i contacted the eyes and --

the eisenhower library. they said that wasn't foolish. it wasn't true. he wasn't jewish. but he was, you're right, but then he supported nafta against israel, britain and france -- nasa. >> [inaudible] >> yes, it was. anyone else? >> first of all i want to commend you for a very fascinating book. i enjoyed the parts about a read, and i don't want to comment on the first president you mentioned, mr. washington, because i was much too young then. [laughter] but i would like to bring us back to what this young lady was talking about, and i agree with her 100% about mr. roosevelt. in my own case i know that my mother and father, when they learned of mr. roosevelt's

death, almost sat sugar, which greens, you know, commemorating the dead by spending seven days. he had an influence over the jewish people that to this day has never been corrected, frankly. the argument about mr. boswell, the many authors have written about him is that it's true he didn't do much to save the jews. but he did more than anybody else. >> right. >> and that's ridiculous because everybody else did zero. [applause] and mr. roosevelt did very, very little, aside from the st. louis, which was, incidentally the captain of that ship was german, not a jew but german. he spent many days trying, once these people were not allowed to land in cuba, he went to the coast, right off the coast of miami where people could still see the lights shine in miami.

d tt his government refused to let the thing. and today, everybody knew what was going on in the european theater. there's no question about it. these people were turned around and sent to belgium, finally after this german captain couldn't do it anymore. iverson to belgium, to portugal, to other countries which within a few months where they were overrun by the germans ended up, most of them, in concentration camps. a lot of them, over 250 out of almost the 1000 were admitted to england, which did save him, many of them. now, as far as the other guy that i remember very clearly, because i was in the army at the time, even under roosevelt, was mr. truman. now, mr. truman, you are 100% correct about bess.

she was an anti-semite of the first order. it is true, no jew was permitted in her home. i do not much influenced she had on mr. truman, let me tell you this. when we brag about the fact that mr. truman was the first, it's true, the first to recognize the state of israel, we've got to also remember that countries as you indicated earlier do not have -- their self interest and that's the way should be. there's no question about it. when mr. truman raised his hand and made sure that we were the first, his point was, correctly, he didn't want soviet union to be an influence. wanted the united states to have influenced in the mideast. and one of the reasons was oil. in fact that's a big reason. it's been a big reason for almost, what, 30, 40 years. thank you. but i did enjoy your book very

much. [applause] >> one other thing about truman was when he recognized israel, the first person he told was his jewish adviser. >> hi. very interesting. glad i came today. very informative, but you didn't mention some people that i'm interested in, and that was kennedy and bush one and two. what can you tell us about them and how they treated the jews? >> kennedy, j. f. kennedy was very interesting and that when he interviewed several of the israeli leaders in the white house, and the american secret service, information rather, were almost certain that jewish

had an atomic bomb. they were right about that, or working on atomic bombs. he went very easy on the people. there's some of the stuff in the book about that, how he succeeded that. golda meir was very fond of jfk and was convinced he was very pro israel and would provide much help. and who was the other presidents? >> [inaudible] >> bush worked very hard to help ethiopian jews escape. using ethiopian woman is now the beauty queen in israel, the lights went but i think there was no question. the younger bush, the later bush was very friendly. so both the bushes were very good jews, very pro israel. no question about it.

all the presidents provided israel with armst they required. none shortchanged them. over here. >> hi. i'm very interested in why the israelis have such a low approval rate of obama. it's really interesting it went from 818. because when i was there, the people that i spoke to come and we have a -- really, really didn't like him, thought that his policies were anti-israel. and so when you say that he has done so much, i personally would like to know what exactly it is.

because perhaps it would change my views. >> among other things he provided a lot of the money to the iron dome recently, but i think some of the criticism from the israeli point of view or the jewish point of view is, but all the presidents have done this, objecting to the settlement, objecting to settlements on what they called disputed territory. that's one reason. the other reason i think he made a mistake saying 1967 lines for the peace treaty, quickly correctly -- wrecking in so saying with a mutually agreed adjustments. but i think that 19 '67 line because it's not safe for israel to go back to the 1967 lines. >> first of all, 1967 and he said that immediately, like an

afterthought a female he said it was an adjustment. >> right. >> the other thing is when israelis complain about obama it's because they really didn't understand a thing. they thought that he was a muslim because of his name, and it was like a preconceived notion of talking from expense because i live in israel part of the time. i have a best friend who hates obama. she hated him. she could never say a nice thing about him. and as of the last visit, she called to say i was 100% wrong. and i have heard many israelis tell me that, a lot more than the 18% that you know about. people from all over. my family members, everybody was always complain about obama. not anymore. that last visit really made a huge difference. [applause] >> what's the interesting thing is that -- oh, yes.

people were saying that the speech he made before in egypt, he was apologizing for america. in fact, speaking to that audience which was made up i as a mostly of arabs and mostly muslims, he began this speech, obama this is, by same -- saying america's reliance with israel is ironclad which is very brave i think in front of a few thousand arabs and muslims. >> how can you reconcile the fact that obama is strictly for israel when benjamin netanyahu came, and they have meeting, and obama excused himself from that meeting to go to his family dinner and left benjamin

netanyahu said in there? >> it's amazing, isn't it, that the lives of two great nations, the personal animosity for each other should -- [inaudible]. the pretend friendship. one reason i think is netanyahu who is pretty right wing, and obama is left wing. and to get anybody, two americans were like that and don't like -- who was it that said, who was quoted as saying he couldn't, not that he couldn't stand netanyahu but he's very difficult to deal with? some other politician. i think it was the british prime minister, am i right? the french prime minister said netanyahu was very difficult to deal with. the french prime minister is

probably, too. >> you can understand how netanyahu is with regard to what he has to put up with. but with regard to obama's visit to israel, we all know what a great speaker obama is. and if he could sway a country, twice, he could sway another country to like him. >> although i think the last meeting was more friendly. >> as i say, he is a great speaker. and no matter what he says -- [inaudible] >> i think with respect to obama, his statements about the settlement i think certainly his prediction with respect to the future is something we have to listen to.

because people don't seem to realize that the settlements do not change. within 20 years the jews will be a minority in israel, and that is, that would be catastrophic to make israel an apartheid state. so i think at all cost there must be some kind of settlement that will prevent the jews becoming a minority there within 20 years. >> right. i agree. spent i know there's a lot of good discussion that right now as dimwitted a lot of people and food. i think we kind of have to call it now and talk more afterwards on your own. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you very much. ..

>> you know, when i was in prison, too, i read the book "mr. chairman," and i read that book and tried for the life of me to figure out how os ten kousky didn't and the rest of the place didn't for the post office scandal. i read what he did, and it amounted to nothing. the siegelman case is interesting because especially the fact rove refused to give

information. >> and i don't know why obama -- >> i don't know why somebody couldn't finish. [inaudible] at the time, but it was a legal case. and it was a very fascinating deal. and, of course, abramoff was involved in the money raising. >> abramoff, when he came out, lectured. and i said how much money -- [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] >> $20 million. spooking after he got -- speaking after he got out, he said $20 million. >> think about it, to what purpose? to what end? i mean, this man has been in jail, he's gotten out of jail, he's -- [inaudible conversations] >> he wrote about it in the book. he was rove-whacked, not bush-whacked. >> here's the purpose, if i could butt in -- >> please.

>> one, it's about gambling. you see, siegelman wanted to let legalized gambling in the door through the lottery. and the mississippi -- [inaudible] didn't want that. they wanted -- [inaudible] the other thing is the judge, the second judge who you write about in your book, fuller -- [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] and nobody knew about it. so this goes to the heart of the military industrial complex when a judge who owned 44% of the company not -- got a $300 million contract, and nobody knew about it. >> i think we're going to come to your book signing. >> no, no, no. [laughter] >> i didn't know him.

like i had some friendship and decided to write about him. i just found it very fascinating when i looked at the facts of the issue of what on earth happened. and then, of course, abramoff at the -- rove's request spent all that money. when i got out of or morgantown federal prison, or as we lovingly refer in our house the bush housing program, i did something i swore i wouldn't do. i said i don't need anything public, and i need to sit around a little bit. she said, no, you have some experiences, some knowledge, some working his reof poll -- history of politics and government. i knew who tom hartman was, i've got a lot of respect for him. and i hi today in -- i think

today in washington you're to the left or to the right. and it doesn't matter how tom would be classified, he's fair. and he's accomplished in journalism. and i've had interest to see some of his books. so i was a little nervous, but we did the show, and it really went well. and then i continued to do the whole radio gig, did my own show for a little bit, bob ney news notes out of wheating, west virginia, with a longtime friend, howard monroe. and that was interesting, but then after a while i didn't like doing the daily show. so i continued to do talk radio, which i do to this day, and then i ventured to india. i have a chapter in this book which i was really delighted to write, and it's called "incredible india." when i go over there, i stayed five or seven minutes' walk from the dalai lama's residence.

fascinating place. it provided me the opportunity to actually write this book because i was able to go for a couple of months, really focus on it, then come back and in between, you know, watching my granddaughter and the 12-step recovery program assistance that i do for some people, i was able to write this book. and our editor, sherry johnson, was just absolutely amazing. ellen rattner, francesca's here tonight, changing lives press. i never thought i'd do a book, but my cousin, god rest his soul, wrote knute rockne. so i always told the republicans he coined the phrase, the gipper. and ronald reagan, that was his successful movie. so i always gave my cousin credit -- sorry, ellen -- for electing ronald reagan. my cousin told we i needed to write a book. i just never thought i'd write

this one or write it this way. so i put a lot of thought into it. didn't do the book at first, and then i did "60 minutes" with my former chief of staff. and neil and i agreed to do it together, and here's why we did. it was percent to have the two of us. it -- it was better to have the two of us. if i said this, neil could say, no, huh-uh, bob, or vice versa. so in my opinion having the two of us side by side was a better way to do that. so i went to india then and saw "60 minutes" over there. and when i saw it, i watched jack abramoff. i did this to mideast, period. -- myself, period. but i watched jack abramoff on that "60 minutes" and, you know,

i could feel some of empathy. i feel empathy for anybody that's a done time. but beyond that, i just wondered where jack was going with his version of history. and then when i heard him say he owned 100 members and spent a million dollars, i said, wow, i got the short end of that stick, i guess. [laughter] he raised not too much for us. but i sat there in all seriousness, and i thought, you know, i want to tell my end of it. i wanted to make it more than that. he's part of the story, and i told the story of abramoff pause i get -- because i get asked constantly by constituents, what happened to you? what on earth happened to you? and this book tells the story. it's a complicated story where i have my part, and then there's some other parts to it. so the perfect storm is sort of a way i put together, you know,

exactly the outside influences, too, that came into help with the idiocy that i created and the crimes that i committed. also in the book and very important to me, and i want to mention this, mek, because it deals with iran and our opportunity that we missed as a country to -- i sent that deal to the white house, and they chose to ignore it. and maybe things would have been different. i wanted to state that, mek, they were recently delisted and made legitimate. so i wanted to mention that because i think it's important on an international basis, and i was part of that. the other town in there is about morgantown federal prison. you know, i was a lawmaker, i became a lawbreaker, and i went into the prison side. i sat with webb hubbel who was a high-profile person who i first

met in the back of the antiroom in the finance committee. congressman mike oxley said remove the handcuffs from the man. he said, you will here. and he came out and testified on the whole whitewater deal. and that's how i met webb hubbel the first time. second time i was headed to prison, i just wanted to go to prison. i was a self-reporter, which is like reporting for your own firing quad. and ellen said you've got to meet webb hubbel. i sat here in washington, d.c. i don't know how many hours, three, four, five, and he walked me through how you survive from day one, and that was the best amount of time that i spent. he also gave me insight as a former chief justice of the arkansas supreme court, former attorney general who went to court, and he was very empathetic, webb was, to the plight of a lot of people in prison. and i walked out of prison not

angry, and i didn't walk out of prison thinking, oh, i was a former congressman -- i walked out of there feeling a bond with a lot of people. and i need to tell that in this book. things are going on inside those walls. i don't want expect anybody to have -- i don't expect anybody to have sympathy for me. i have the ability to be on television with writers here and the print media, and i can write a book and tell my story. a lot of people don't have a voice inside those walls. and we are warehousing human beings. we are not rehabbing them, we are warehousing them. this government, and the current administration too, it has statistics that they took the big drug dealers and put them away. i ironically became friends with the drug offenders. there's a lot of addicts in prison. they now become a statistic, that the drug dealer was put away. they're addicts. thai not getting treatment, and they need to have it.

the other part is my own personal struggle with addiction. and i have a message i think in this book, and i say it in the beginning, that you don't have to be in politics and abuse substances to, you know, make your life go down. it can happen to anybody. i don't care what you do. i don't care if you're a waiter, what you do in your life's profession, a relater or whatever you are. -- a reporter or whatever you are. you can inject substances into your body, you can lose focus, you can go down a path that will cause you a lot of personal problems. so i put 12-step recovery information which i think is important in this book. and i come -- i put a couple funny stories about the congress, and i give credit to some members of congress which both sides of the aisle in this book. a few funny stories, some things that will shock people in this book about staffers. a little section on congressional spouses which is pretty nice but, you know, they kind of run things, let's face it. i think we kind of foe that. but i came to a conclusion in

the book. i almost didn't write that conclusion, i felt compelled to, and it was very simple, is it still corrupt? what jack abramoff and i did and our staffs, and that was, quote, the biggest scandal of its time, etc. but what we did has been codified into a legal situation today. i, if i'm a lobbyist, can take any member of congress or a staffer, i can have a fundraiser. once we have the fundraiser can take you hunting, i can take you to vegas. some republicans went to a bondage club, at least they're getting personality. i put that in the book. this. citizens united. i fought john marc cane on cam either side of the aisle can do pace -- mccain on campaign be finance reform twice. he made loopholes and 527 you could drive mack trucks through. but at the end of the day with citizens united ruling and the lack of a true campaign finance

reform pill at that time, you have -- bill at that time, you have a situation today where a super pac comes along, well, we can pick on karl rove or george soros, whichever side of the aisle you want to skewer. so the average member in order to counter that needs $3 million. they take their staffer, they go across the street on federal time, and they get on the telephone to the dccc or the nrcc, either political party, and they do that. now, that doesn't mean we've got bad members. they are victims of this system. i promise you, many members of congress would like this to change too. many members do not find it delightful to raise this money. some like it, but a lot don't. so there's a lot of good members. i don't want to make you think i'm saying there isn't. jack abramoff and i going away and some staff people, you know, with felonies didn't change anything. it might have made people feel more comfortable, but it didn't

change things. so i put that conclusion there. and i end it with a quote i really like. and it basically, to paraphrase it, says i had a sub stands, i had an addiction. and today there's another addiction. and it's to campaign contributions. and they need an intervention. and it's the public. the public can do an intervention on the hill. it's a beautiful place, and it can make it even better. so i address a lot of issues in the book, and i hope it's not just looked at as one issue or attacking one person or something. i'm not a bitter person. i spend time with my granddaughter today, i get to go to i india, i get to do radio wh ellen rattner's stations, a lot of great people like tom hartman and people to the right or the left or the middle, they get their voice out there and tell people a story of what's going on in their government.